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gation. I believe that a large amount of the documents here given present unusually good opportunities for exercises designed with that intent. (4) The meaning of technical terms and the significance of constantly recurring allusions can often be more satisfactorily explained in connection with a document than by any other method. None of the selections have been made principally for this reason, but with quite a number it has been an important factor. (5) With many instructors the use of original sources in the teaching of history is valued chiefly for its vitalizing effect. For this purpose documents are perhaps less effective than contemporary narratives. Yet there are many exceptions. Several of the documents not otherwise of the highest worth have been included for their value in this particular.

Most of the documents in this collection will serve several of these purposes, but the superior value of a document for but one of these is often the decisive reason for its inclusion. The brevity of the introductions has made it necessary that I should confine myself to pointing out only a very few of the ways in which the documents are of interest. In some cases I regret that the plan has not made possible more extended comment, but in general I believe that as much has been furnished the student as he can profitably receive. He needs to be started, but he should not be told all of the things to be obtained from the document. In the furnishing of data I have tried to supply such information as is indispensable for the understanding of the document, provided it is not to be found in the document itself. The references have been purposely confined to a limited number of well known works, all of which are in English or in French. By this method I believe that all students who use the book may be induced to become quite familiar with nearly all of the works in English and, if they read any French, with the four or five French works cited. To have given more, I fear, would have defeated this purpose.

I am greatly indebted to Mrs. Helen Dresser Fling, to the editors of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and to the editors of that admirable series issued by the history department of the University of Pennsylvania, Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History, for permission to employ their excellent

translations wherever I have had occasion to use a document that has already appeared in their publications. In using these translations, as well as a number of others from noncopyrighted sources, I have made separate acknowledgment in every instance and have reproduced them exactly as printed, excepting some slight typographical errors and a few changes kindly supplied by Mrs. Fling. In my own translations I have striven to be as literal as possible, having a decent regard for the idioms of the English language. Probably I have been more literal than was absolutely requisite, but I have believed that the translator of documents should err upon the side of literary form rather than meaning. In the matter of paragraphing I have invariably followed the form of the document as originally printed in French, even when a single sentence is made to run into a dozen paragraphs. As to other features of form, such as punctuation and capitals, I have been guided by two canons-to treat each document separately so as to produce the best result for that particular document, and to follow the originals as closely as English usage would allow.

It is a pleasure to acknowledge help received from several friends in addition to those already mentioned. Professor Willis Mason West, my colleague and chief, has generously responded to my frequent appeals for advice. Professor Fred Morrow Fling of the University of Nebraska kindly looked over the list of materials and made several helpful suggestions. I am under great obligation to my publishers for permission to make the volume considerably larger than stipulated in our agreement. Most of all I am indebted to my wife, Mary Steele Anderson. To her constant encouragement, literary criticisms, and assistance with the manuscript and proofs, I owe a large part of whatever value the volume may possess.

University of Minnesota,

April 30, 1904.

FRANK MALOY ANDERSON.

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